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Cycling Diaries_02

The hercules rodeo at the meeting point in Chandani ChowkThe Canondale- upgrade borrowed from Bro in law

So here’s how it all ‘re’ started… I was happy playing tennis with a bunch of really cool guys who have become the closest of friends since then. Nobody was cycling to the tennis court when we started when suddenly one fine day we all realised that we all have cycles parked at our homes which are excellent as an additional clothes drying rack!!!

So the oldest guys in our group, once, out of the blue, just like that , posted a photo to our Whatsapp group(early days of whatsapp , let me tell you!!) which had the two of them atop the Manas resort ghat along with a caption that said ‘ feeling awesome'( a typical facebook status!!)

and so it began…Sundays were reserved was cycle rides from Chandani Chowk to University (SPPU to be precise) and those 12/15 kms were really feeling awesome… Soon we challenged ourselves to slightly longer rides ..Pirangut ghat was the first of them…and man..Was the climb tough!!! We were climbing the ghat in a single file and every guy after the first one had decided right at the start of the climb that once the guy n front of me stops I am getting down..this is not happening!!! But thanks to the first guy nobody stopped and we finally made it to the top of Pirangut ghat….of course a roadie (that’s a type of a cycle BTW)easily overtook all of us and the rider even gave us the thumbs up sign as he sailed past …we gave him the middle finger in our minds!!!!

I had a hercules Rodeo back then which was a pretty fancy cycle MTB with rear shock absorbers…Wow!!!??? No not at all..realised it much later that shock absorbers tire you out more!!! But those were early days hence it can be termed as a rookie mistake. I was borrowing a high end cycle form my ever generous Bro in law(he has really offered me a lot of my firsts- my first beer, my first digital watch, my first high end cycle , my first ever pattaya trip!! ok..that’s enough details) Soon the Sunday rituals turned into fun rides with longer distances and closer friendships.

And that’s when a sort of a turning point came which really made me into a cycle enthusiast. The Panshet Parikrama!!! That particular ride of 175 odd kms over a period of 2 days convinced me to take up cycling as a enjoyable exercise!!